Armstrong High School students banned from hockey games for yelling sexual chants at female goalie
Students at Armstrong High School, north of Pittsburgh, were banned from hockey games and may face further discipline after directing sexually-explicit chants at an opposing female goalie Thursday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
A group of roughly 50-60 students from the school reportedly repeated the chant, which was directed at a female goalie on the Mars hockey team. The goalie has started all five games for the team. The goalie — whose name was not made public by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — was reportedly in tears following the second period.
Armstrong principal Kirk Lorigan said he was "appalled and embarrassed" at the Armstrong students' actions. He said the situation was still being investigated by the school, which is trying to determine which students were involved and which ones led the chants.
Lorigan also expressed anger that no one at the Belmont Sports Complex in Kittanning, Penn. — including parents or security — stepped in to stop the chant.
“In my mind, this should’ve been stopped immediately by anyone that was there who has any moral value at all. I’m disgusted by it. … There were a lot of people there who could’ve handled this differently.”
Security at the contest were employed by Belmont Sports Complex, not the high schools.
Mars coach Steve Meyers said there have been girls in the league before, and nothing like this has ever happened.
“We have no one else. She plays varsity and JV for us,” said Meyers, in his 14th year as coach. “We’ve had plenty of girls in this league before and never heard anything like this. With all the training we’re required to do as coaches about safe sports and sportsmanship, this should not happen. For it to fail this badly, it’s really disappointing.”
Lorigan spoke to Mars assistant principal Jess Semler on Friday and apologized to "the whole Mars community" for the Armstrong students' actions.
